Alan Shepard

Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett "Al" Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was an American naval officer and aviator, test pilot, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, and businessman, who in May 1961 made the first manned Mercury flight. Shepard's craft entered space, but did not to achieve orbit. He became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space, and the first person to manually control the orientation of his spacecraft.